Definitely Not Another Wickerbottom Skill Tree Concept

[Pruinae]

Hi, this is my take on the Wickerbottom skill tree.

I believe Wickerbottom's books, as strong as they are, are too "one and done". There are some that you can more actively use like Apicultural Notes, Overcoming Arachnophobia, and Sleepytime Stories, but when compared to other options available to every character (panflute for example), the cast time and sanity cost start weighting in and she is better off looking for solutions outside of her books. There's basically none that are convenient to use on a day-to-day basis, you kind of get into the loop "farm using the books, then spend like 10+ days without interacting with books at all until you have another reason to farm with the books again". You're always acting and never reacting, rooted to a bookcase.

Also, when we talk about Wickerbottom we can't ignore the Maxwell in the room (holding her book, about to use it while directly looking at Wickerbottom's closed eyes, smiling). I think the problem between their "synergy" is that Wickerbottom gives her entire skillset to Maxwell, while he gives her very little back.

I tried to solve these problems by giving Wickerbottom a new — dynamic way — to use her books that would, of course, be exclusive to her. 



The skills are stacked in rows meant to resemble books, it flows from left to right, top to bottom. Except for the shadow affinity, that breaks this pattern by going bottom to top, and the first three perks that I thought would work better by not being insight point heavy.

The leftmost lock would be unlocked after learning 4 skills, one of them obligatorily being Polymath, the middle lock would be unlocked after 10 skills are leveled, and the moon and shadow locks would be unlocked after the previous skill in their rows are learned, as long as the opposite affinity final perk isn't invested in. I believe this would lead to different, interesting, build paths.

Let's call the first, leftmost section "Knowledge", the second, middle section "Whispers", and the last, rightmost section "Affinity".

Knowledge

Spoiler

● Polymath
"Learn to craft the Unpretentious Book Marker, a conduit for whispers."

"Whisper" is what I will be calling Wickerbottom's incantations/spells. 

This item would work like embers works for Willow or the codex works for Maxwell, you use it and it opens up a radial circle with options to use your spells. Since I envisioned a spell for every book, this radial could get a little constricted, so I'd like to imagine you'd have to possess the book for the respective whisper you want to use in your inventory, before the whisper appears as an option in the radial.

Much like Willow that gets to use Flame Cast as soon as she unlocks Ember Tender, this perk would come with the "Mind Your Manners" whisper: Wickerbottom grants a targeted survivor 50 of her own sanity, requiring 50 sanity and having a 30 seconds cooldown.

I think the Marker requiring cheap crafting components should be fine considering you'd still require your books to use most whispers.
Something like 1 Petals, 1 Papyrus and 1 Nightmare Fuel, or even cheaper.

The Unpretentious Book Marker cannot be given to other players, but other players can grab it from the floor or from containers (this will be relevant later). 

Credits to @marshyds, who presented the concept of spells exclusive to Wickerbottom in a post before.


● Study Group
"Reading blueprints shares the knowledge with nearby survivors."

Helpful early game when playing in groups, it also makes possible for Wickerbottom to get a few more papyrus by erasing the now extra blueprints in the cartographer's desk. 


● Self-Help Books
"Books in your inventory are restored over time."

This would allow Wickerbottom to use books more actively early game. I think a rate of 3% per 30 seconds would be good, totalizing 48% in 8 minutes.

Credits to @MrMNWorm, @Keknutui, @ShadowDuelist and @marshyds, who have all given a similar suggestion to this in other posts.


● Lure-Friendly
"Lureplants have 25% increased inventory and start producing Eyeplants immediately."

Being able to skip the 2 days wait for eyeplants allows Wickerbottom to compete with Maxwell's Shadow Gatherers, keep in mind she still needs to wait for the first spring and needs to have a setup to accommodate the lureplant.


● Lure-Graft
"Lureplants have 50% increased inventory, and you can use a Razor to splice it, preventing it from consuming collected items."

The not consuming items part includes disabling the accelerated rate food items perish within its inventory. This opens up a few possibilities, such as utilizing lureplants in fight scenarios without worrying with loot getting destroyed, or using lureplants to farm berries and bananas.


● Avant Garden
"Lureplants have 100% increased inventory, and you can enchant them with an Unpretentious Book Marker or a Nightmare Fuel, making it release a bird repelling biochemical."

I believe the 50% increase in inventory, and preventing birds from taking up the lureplant's inventory space are a good reason to justify spending an insight point. I imagine the bird repel would work just as it works with anenemies currently, this probably means you could substitute anenemies with a lureplant to farm birds, which is fine since you'd still need to wait for spring.

The Nightmare Fuel options is there just in case someone opts to level Avant Garden without having leveled Polymath.


● Food Safety I to III
"Sanity gained from food is 25%/50%/100% more efficient."

A powerful passive that allows Wickerbottom to use magic more often without worrying with shadow creatures, it also somewhat extends to her team if she frequently makes use of the "Mind Your Manners" whisper.


● Compos Mentis
"Books or whispers cast at full sanity spend no book durability."

Another step in helping Wickerbottom not be rooted to her bookcases, it does have a considerable cost in regards to sanity food if you decide to spam spells.

Whispers
Addendums: 
Whispers, unlike books, cannot be cast if you don't have the required sanity, unless you are enlightened. Wickerbottom could say something along the lines of "It would be unwise to recite that incantation without recomposing myself first."

Survivors under the effects of any spells lose the spell effect if they die.

Fast cast is the same as Willow's cast time for her spells, and slow cast is the same time as it takes to read a book.
Spell circle range is the same range Maxwell has for his Shadow Prison. While 3 turfs range is a circle surrounding Wickerbottom, with a distance of 3 turfs to reach the outer edges (same range as the regular Tempering Temperatures, I think).


4th Row
I tried making this row a bit silly, with a creature theme.

Spoiler

● Bee Careful
"Devise the Bee Careful whisper: Use Apicultural Notes to enchant yourself and nearby survivors with the knowledge of an experienced beekeeper, and rile up friendly Grumble Bees."

Fast cast, 10 seconds cooldown, screen-wide range, costs 20% book durability and 33 sanity.
Affected survivors are granted neutrality to killer bees, and are allowed to collect honey from bee boxes without provoking the bees. It also riles up previously summoned Grumble Bees similar to Bee Queen's screech. The enchantment to survivors lasts 4 minutes, and the rile up lasts for the same amount it lasts for Bee Queen.

Nice to collect honey from your bee boxes, your party won't be affected by killer bees in spring (also can use them in combat without fearing they turning on you), and increases the summoned Grumble Bees DPS.

If this perk comes to fruition, Wormwood's Bee Kind should allow him to collect bees and butterflies with his bare hands :P


● Fluke-Proof
"Devise the Fluke-Proof whisper: Use The Angler's Survival Guide to enchant yourself and surrounding survivors with the navigation skills of a seasoned angler."

Slow cast, 10 seconds cooldown, 3 turfs range, costs 50% book durability and 100 sanity. 
Gives the effects of a pirate bandana to yourself and nearby survivors. Stacks with the pirate bandana making so boat actions are instant, and oars do not consume durability on use. Lasts for 4 minutes.

If the bandana is ever buffed to make boat actions instant by itself, this incantation should also get that buff. They would still keep their niche of no oar durability consumed when stacked.


● Crow Away
"Devise the Crow Away whisper: Use Birds of the World to enchant yourself and nearby survivors with a charm that attracts helpful birds."

Fast cast, 30 seconds cooldown, 3 turfs range, costs 20% book durability and 33 sanity. Does not work in caves.
For 1 minute you and nearby survivors get a 25% movespeed bonus, and can fly over the ocean. However, this effect cannot stack with other movespeed bonuses, and players under the spell cannot interact with the environment or their inventory until the charm ends or is canceled.
Survivors affected can use the secondary action button on themselves to shoo the birds away, if this happens, or the charm ends while they are above the ocean, they drown. Getting hit also scares the birds away.

I think this would be useful to explore in mid/late first autumn and would create a silly dynamic where you can make an educated (or not) guess at where the lunar island is and try to fly over there, potentially finding it or drowning. The movespeed would help large "beefalo-less" groups move around before everyone has a walking cane, it would also be useful at night if you need your hand slot for light (just make sure to equip your light before casting).

Depending on world generation you could use it to cross weird gaps such as these:

I imagine Woodie would immediately shoo the birds away or complain during the entire ride.


● A New Spin
"Devise the New Spin whisper: Use Overcoming Arachnophobia to curse surrounding spiders with fear, making them retreat to their dens."

Slow cast, 45 seconds cooldown, screen-wide range, costs 20% book durability and 33 sanity.
Forces nearby non-tamed spiders to drop their aggro and go back to their dens, makes spider queens transform into a t1 den immediately. Spiders affected by this cannot leave their dens for 1 minute. If a spider den is within range of the spell, all non-tamed spiders related to it are affected by this effect. The spell ends prematurely if a den or a spider is attacked (regular herd aggro range shenanigans apply).

This would be extremely helpful when managing a spider farm, and could be useful to get resources from areas infested with spiders. Just generally useful whenever spiders are involved, really. Keep in mind that the alternative would be killing them, this gives prepared Wickerbottoms a faster, more peaceful option.


● Feller Fellow
"Devise the Feller Fellow whisper: Use On Tentacles to enchant an area and survivors within it with pheromones that pacify tentacles."

Slow cast, 1 minute 30 seconds cooldown, spell circle range, costs 50% book durability and 50 sanity.
Gives players within range neutrality to tentacles for 2 minutes. Tentacles and baby tentacles in range despawn, while big tentacles retreat to their holes without dropping any loot. Big tentacles would still cause an earthquake when retreating, and return eventually like usual.

Extremely powerful since it allows survivors to fight alongside summoned tentacles, just make sure to not hit one by mistake while fighting. Also very useful to help collect loot from enemies killed by your tentacles and to traverse caves.

I think a balancing factor could be to make the "pheromones" go away if the affected survivor casts the regular On Tentacles more than once or twice, to prevent players from being able to easily create very dense tentacle traps without dropping items to block spawns.

5th Row
I tried to make this row sound "sciency", with an environment theme.

Spoiler

● Insulated Ward
"Devise the Insulated Ward whisper: Consume Tempering Temperatures to enchant surrounding survivors with a ward that prevents negative effects."

Slow cast, no cooldown, 3 turfs range, costs 100% book durability and 250 sanity — of which 100 is locked for the duration of the spell.
Negative effects would include: Being set on fire, being frozen, Ewecus spit, and Fuelweaver's mind control. Negative effects that don't directly affect players such as Bee Queen's honey and Fuelweaver's bone cage still function as normal. Lasts 4 minutes.

Very niche, but very powerful in its niches. Eat Klaus and Ewecus alive, and have more options when fighting against Fuelweaver and Crystal Deerclops. A balancing factor could be making so Tempering Temperatures is consumed even if you have an effect that prevents book durability loss.

Credits to @marshyds, who has given a suggestion similar to this in another post.


● Homeostatic Instability
"Devise the Homeostatic Instability whisper: Use Pyrokinetics Explained to curse enemies in an area with flammability, increasing fire damage received by 50%."

Slow cast, 30 seconds cooldown, spell circle range, costs 20% book durability and 50 sanity.
Pretty straightforward, good synergy with Willow. The next whisper gives Wickerbottom a way to deal fire damage so don't worry too much. Besides Willow's spells, this would also affect damage from being set on fire, and damage from being in contact with a fire. The curse lasts for 2 minutes.

Notice that if you are playing with fire, having Pyrokinetics Explained in your inventory could be very helpful. A balancing factor could be increasing or decreasing the damage received.


● Fire Hazard
"Devise the Fire Hazard whisper: Use Applied Silviculture to transform the flora in an area into a terribly dusty, dry, assortment of highly-flammable plants."

Slow cast, 10 seconds cooldown, spell circle range, costs 33% book durability and 33 sanity.
The area is affected for 1 minute. Functionally works the same as the meteor from The Forge's Infernal Staff, except you have to set fire to it for it to explode. You could achieve this by using a Fire Pen, Fire Dart, Fire Staff, or one of Willow's spells.

The explosion deals 300 damage and can't hit other players but can hit the Wickerbottom that cast it (exactly how Brightshade Bombs  friendly fire works), enemies cursed by Homeostatic Instability take 450 damage. While respecting its duration and cooldown, you could stack many Fire Hazards on top of one another to make an explosion that deals up to 2700 damage.

A balancing factor could be deciding if the explosion sets enemies on fire or not (In which case, a Willow with Controlled Burning could prevent the fire from burning loot by being the one that activates the explosion).


● Invasive Species
"Devise the Invasive Species whisper: Use Applied Horticulture and 10 regular seeds to transform the flora in an area into entangling weeds, enemies in contact with it become entangled."

Slow cast, no cooldown, spell circle range.
Costs 10 regular seeds (can't be specific seeds), 50%/20% (Abridged/Expanded) book durability and 33 sanity.
The area is affected for 10 seconds. Kind of like The Forge's Petrify but the spell remains active in the area for 10 seconds, and looks visually like entangled Spiny Bindweeds and Forget-Me-Lots (one snares, the other makes the enemy forget what it was trying to escape). The weeds can be set on fire to deal contact fire damage.

Regarding Maxwell's Shadow Prison, I believe the 10 seeds cost is fair in comparison, you'd have to do a fair bit of farming and/or seed collecting to get enough seeds to use this spell frequently, not even mentioning the inventory slot cost. If it proves to be cheap, it could be balanced by increasing seed or book durability cost.


● Cloudburst
"Devise the Cloudburst whisper: Use Practical Rain Rituals to summon a blizzard in an area, freezing wet enemies."

Slow cast, 10 seconds cooldown, spell circle range, costs 33% book durability and 50 sanity.
Pretty straightforward AoE freeze, it's cheaper than Invasive Species but you need to set up rain first, and after the enemy is hit it is also set free. Dry enemies get chilled (is what I am calling the state the ice staff gives targets before they get completely frozen) instead.

Balancing factors could be cooldown and freeze duration.

Credits to @marshyds, who has given this suggestion in another post.


● Lightning Conductor
"Devise the Lightning Conductor whisper: Use The End is Nigh! to endow your next 10 strikes with conductive properties, inviting lightning to strike your foes."

Fast cast, no cooldown, only affects self, costs 20% book durability and 33 sanity.
It does NOT turn Wickerbottom's damage into electric damage, what it does instead is summon a special lightning slightly before your weapon hits. This lightning deals 34 damage, has considerably lowered volume, gives off a burst of light, and does not set enemies on fire. The damage is doubled if the enemy is wet or frozen (68), if the enemy is wet AND frozen the damage doubles again (136), but then the enemy would break free from the ice since it got hit.

This not making her damage electrical also makes so she can still benefit from it, if it comes from other sources. It's possible that there are a few breakpoints for wet and frozen enemies, depending on the weapon you use.

A few balancing factors could be if it works or not in the caves, damage dealt, and amount of strikes. I think working on caves is fine (maybe make a small black cloud to make an excuse for it). If it proves too cumbersome to use in a fight, book durability and sanity costs could also be revised. This incantation should be very good if it is to cost 6 insight points.

Affinity
Moon

Spoiler

● Prudent Chant
"Devise the Prudent Chant whisper: Consume Everything Encyclopedia to make your next 10 whispers cast require no book durability."

Slow cast, no cooldown, only affects self, costs 100% book durability and 50 sanity.
Is not affected by removal of book durability cost effects. Has infinite duration and can stack with itself up to 5 times (Maybe visually represented by a lightbulb over Wickerbottom's head that shines depending on the amount of stacks she has?). The idea is to have an alternative way to save up on book durability that isn't just chugging sanity food with Compos Mentis, probably outclassed by bookcases late game but still decent early.

Would help manage inventory space by preventing having to lug around a bunch books of the same type.

Balancing factors could be the amount of cast affected, stacking limit and cooldown. Should it affect book casts also?


● Magnus Lux
"Devise the Magnus Lux whisper: Use Lux Aeterna Redux to create an enchanted lightflowers field surrounding you, affecting shadow creatures adversely and soothing other survivors."

3 seconds cast, 4 minutes cooldown, 3 turfs range, costs 50% book durability and 50 sanity — which is locked for 4 minutes.
The field lasts for 10 seconds. The lightflowers give off light and lesser shadow creatures that come into contact with the field are dispelled (Terrorbeak, Crawling Horror), other shadow-aligned enemies receive 90 damage per second. Restores 5 sanity per second to survivors inside and when the field duration ends, restores sanity to players inside the field based on how many creatures were dispelled (20 per creature divided by number of players). Dispelled basically means they despawn but don't drop nightmare fuel. Ends prematurely if the caster leaves the spell area.

Very strong, however do consider the extremely long cast time, cooldown and sanity locked. There could be many balancing factors, such as range.

Credits to @Ohan, who has given a similar suggestion to this in another post.


● Keep An Open Mind
"Entreat the moon to disclose the Open Mind whisper: Use the Lunar Grimoire to open your mind's eye, and to imbue the Enlightened Crown temporarily."

Slow Cast, 8 minutes cooldown, only affects self, costs 50% book durability and no sanity.
Functionally, it makes Wickerbottom enlightened for 4 minutes, and makes so the Enlightened Crown is always active, regardless of her sanity, for the duration.

Since you can only cast whispers without having the required sanity when you are enlightened, you could use this incantation to cast many whispers without worrying about sanity for its duration. You could also use it to spam regular books casts without worrying about shadow creatures. Also, makes it easier to get value out of the Enlightened Crown, even if you are constantly casting spells.

Maybe the cooldown is too long?

Shadow

Spoiler

● Mind Over Matters
"Devise the Mind Over Matters whisper: Swap your sanity with a survivor in the possession of an Unpretentious Book Marker."

Fast Cast, 1 minute cooldown, targeted.
The reason the Unpretentious Book Marker cannot be directly given to other players. Kind of straightforward but has its nuances. If you swap your full 250 sanity with a Willow that has 0 sanity, she would be left with 120, you would be left with 0, and 130 sanity would be lost in the exchange.

You could use this to swap your low sanity with someone that can deal with shadows easier, use it on a high sanity target to recharge your sanity so you can keep reciting whispers in a prolonged fight, save someone from shadow creatures, or just to help your team manage sanity.


● Hurried Chant
"Devise the Hurried Chant whisper: Use Sleepytime Stories to get a burst of energy, making your next whisper, book or staff cast instant."

Instant cast, no cooldown, only affects self, costs 10% book durability and 33 sanity.
Simple and cool, I'd like to imagine that the spell radial is not closed after selecting this whisper with click and hold, to make it faster to select the next one, while not affecting its uses with books and staves. You would select the whisper you want to instant cast by dragging Hurried Chant over it.

The most notable instant cast targets I can think of are Sleepytime Stories, On Tentacles, all of the "spell circle range" whispers and the Caller's Staves.

Maybe reducing the sanity cost would be for the best?

Credits to @MrMNWorm and @Dr.Webber, who have given a suggestion similar to this in another post.


● Ancient Secrets
Tap into the darkness to reveal secrets within the Mind Over Matters whisper: Target yourself with Mind Over Matters to unleash accursed whispers on your surroundings, removing cooldowns from those affected.

Slow cast, 8 minutes cooldown, 3 turfs range, costs 100 sanity.
Functionally, this refunds Wickerbottom's 10 next instances of cooldown, while nearby allies get their next 5 instances refunded. This affects Wickerbottom's whispers, Wanda's clocks, Willow spell cooldowns, Wigfrid's stingers cooldowns if she has the perk for it, bone armor, etc. This does not however affect other Wickerbottom's whisper cooldowns, only the one who casted it. Has infinite duration — however — using this whisper again while it is active doesn't stack, only replenishes the 10 uses.

You could use it to tank 10 hits with a single bone armor, instant cast Magnus Lux with Hurried Chant 5 times (if insight point allocation allows it), stack a bunch of Fire Hazards to deal over 4500 burst damage, despawn many tentacles with Feller Fellow, keep Grumble Bess constantly riled up with Bee Careful (maybe rile ups can sort of stack to make them even faster?), there's a fair amount of powerful uses I can think of.

Gives a form of skill expression to Wickerbottom, in how fast you can navigate the whispers radial.

Conclusion
I think that my concept, if balanced well, can give Wickerbottom a gameplay loop of using her amazing farming capabilities to amass a bunch of sanity food, to then spend all that sanity food as fuel for her spells. I realize my suggestions may go a bit beyond the scope of a skill tree, but you know what? This is a fan concept of something that doesn't exist yet, so the only thing that matters in the rule of cool 

What do you think? Did you find a flaw in the whispers that would totally break the game? Let me know teehee
Also, keep in mind Maxwell still hasn't gotten his skill tree. I am so scared, crying, trembling, throwing up.....

Also, also, if I forgor to/just didn't give credit to you, and you want said credits, please let me know (with proof preferably). I can also remove credits I gave you, if it bothers you in any way, no problem.

[NPCMaxwell]

Am I simply allowed to aknowledge how much I adore the artwork suggested for this skill tree? (plus yes, I also think Maxwell takes a bit too much freedom when it comes to her books which SHOULD really be fixed with something like this)

[Dr.Webber]

Thanks for the mention quick question though shouldn’t the alignments be more reflective

[Brago-sama]

1 hour ago, Pruinae said:

She need sum caffeine

[Keknutui]

I love it when players come up with such interesting concepts for such a strong character. Good work

[Loremorn]

12 hours ago, Dr.Webber said:

Thanks for the mention quick question though shouldn’t the alignments be more reflective

What do you mean by more reflective? Like, lunar skills being the opposite of shadow?

[Pruinae]

13 hours ago, Dr.Webber said:

Thanks for the mention quick question though shouldn’t the alignments be more reflective

Reflective? Or do you mean effective? Could you rephrase that? :S
If you mean reflective in the sense "Reflective of Charlie and Wagstaff sides": Wickerbottom doesn't seem fond of what Charlie is doing, judging by her quote "I'd like to give that young lady a stern talking to!" said when examining Charlie. But she will use Nightmare Fuel or even Pure Horror tools even though she doesn't like them — "I do not care for this type of magic" (when examining Shadowcraft Plinth) — so I believe she would not necessarily take Charlie's side, but she could make use of shadow magic following her studies of the historical events that transpired on the Ruins, Atrium, and Archives.

On the Wagstaff side of things, she isn't against helping him but does seem displeased when he keeps only showing up after you kill a boss "Rather convenient of him to show up now that the hard work is done", and with his lack of organization (based on her quotes for his tools during the moon storm event). While her siding with Wagstaff isn't off the table, I believe her choosing to dabble with lunar magic makes for a more interesting choice (she is weary of the mutations though). It does seems like you can kind of side with Wagstaff and the moon at the same time, based on Willow's Lunar Bernie and Lunar Fire-Raiser, after all.

[Dr.Webber]

1 hour ago, Pruinae said:

Reflective? Or do you mean effective? Could you rephrase that? :S
If you mean reflective in the sense "Reflective of Charlie and Wagstaff sides": Wickerbottom doesn't seem fond of what Charlie is doing, judging by her quote "I'd like to give that young lady a stern talking to!" said when examining Charlie. But she will use Nightmare Fuel or even Pure Horror tools even though she doesn't like them — "I do not care for this type of magic" (when examining Shadowcraft Plinth) — so I believe she would not necessarily take Charlie's side, but she could make use of shadow magic following her studies of the historical events that transpired on the Ruins, Atrium, and Archives.

On the Wagstaff side of things, she isn't against helping him but does seem displeased when he keeps only showing up after you kill a boss "Rather convenient of him to show up now that the hard work is done", and with his lack of organization (based on her quotes for his tools during the moon storm event). While her siding with Wagstaff isn't off the table, I believe her choosing to dabble with lunar magic makes for a more interesting choice (she is weary of the mutations though). It does seems like you can kind of side with Wagstaff and the moon at the same time, based on Willow's Lunar Bernie and Lunar Fire-Raiser, after all.

What I meant was I’m pretty sure lunar and shadow stuff is supposed to be mirroring one another klei tends to miss the bar a bit with it But I’m pretty sure that’s what’s intended

2 hours ago, Loremorn said:

What do you mean by more reflective? Like, lunar skills being the opposite of shadow?

Kind of but Not really I kind of just want klei to pick whether or not they’re just opposing forces which the alignment should still be equal then but not reflective or they make it reflections one another the best example of reflection that they have at the aligned Bernie and Fire raiser skills I’m gonna use fire raiser as an example of some small adjustments. They make everything more cohesive:

lunar fire raiser Should’ve worked like shadow fire raiser, but the tendrils are made out of lunar fire

This would also help with their equalness because you can use shadow fire Raiser Well, on a beefalo honestly, I would even accept the shadow fire raiser to be here reflective of lunar fire raiser

[Pruinae]

49 minutes ago, Dr.Webber said:

What I meant was I’m pretty sure lunar and shadow stuff is supposed to be mirroring one another klei tends to miss the bar a bit with it But I’m pretty sure that’s what’s intended

Oh, I think I see what you mean. I believe it's on a character-to-character basis:
Wigfrid, Wolfgang, and Wilson affinities are basically a mirror; Willow and Wurt affinities do mirror each other but have different applications, this makes sense because — for them — having the same thing for both sides, just with a different "skin" would be pretty boring; Woodie shadow affinity has its uses while the lunar affinity is basically a QoL, they both affects his curse but in different ways; Wormwood can only go to the lunar side since he came from the moon; and Winona affinities have many nuances, due to her connections to Charlie and Wagstaff.

I think if the gameplay elements of the alignments don't mirror well, it makes sense to give them different effects. In my concept, I decided to give different effects to the lunar and shadow alignments due to that, and I also considered Wickerbottom's position relating to the shadows, Charlie, Wagstaff, and the moon. The shadow affinity is more related to her observations of the ancient civilization's lore, while the lunar is tied directly to the moon. 

[abrocator]

Well done. This adds another dimension to her.

Wickerbottom is very powerful so I shouldn’t complain… but playing her solo, it takes a good while for me to get ramped up. I think she could use something else like this.

This also doesn’t make her “OP”. Just make these skills less powerful if they are OP.

It kind of feels a bit like a card deck game. And I think that’s nice for her. Some complexity when it comes to combining buffs seems like it would suit her. Something more than just sanity management.

[Sir Noel]

This is waaaay way too good to not have more eyes on it, definitely not commenting for other nefarious reasons >:)

Love giving Wicker more unique uses for her books, the spell mechanic is genuinely amazing!

[chaosmonkey]

I love love love the knowledge section. Improved lureplants is such a nice idea for her. I fear it's too niche though and Klei wouldn't do something like it even if some of us would love that feature.